SynthesisJournal of critical care2020
A systematic review on the efficacy and safety of chloroquine for the treatment of COVID-19.
Synthesis in Journal of critical care, 2020. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. It is linked to 8 registered trials, which are not on this map. Cited by 509 papers, 6 of them syntheses that pooled it.
What it found
Each row is one number read from the abstract, on the scale the paper reported it, with its interval. Left of the dashed line favours the treatment, right favours the comparator. Under each row is the sentence it came from. New to these charts? A ten-minute tutorial.
The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.
The trial behind it
Trials whose registry record cites this paper, or whose number appears in the abstract. A trial that started after this paper was published is citing it as background, not reporting it.
Proflaxis for Healthcare Professionals Using Hydroxychloroquine Plus Vitamin Combining Vitamins C, D and Zinc During COVID-19 Pandemia: An Observational Study
A Randomized, Double-Blind, Placebo-Controlled Phase IIa Study of Quintuple Therapy to Treat COVID-19 Infection
Randomized Study to Evaluate the Safety and Antiviral Efficacy of Hydroxychloroquine in Patients With Newly Diagnosed COVID-19 Compared to Standard of Care Treatment
A Randomized, Double-Blind, Placebo-Controlled Phase IIa Study of Hydroxychloroquine, Vitamin C, Vitamin D, and Zinc for the Prevention of COVID-19 Infection
A Randomized Trial of Efficacy and Safety of an Early OUTpatient Treatment of COVID-19 in Patients With Risk Factor for Poor Outcome: a Strategy to Prevent Hospitalization
A Multi-center, Randomized, Open-label, Controlled Trial to Evaluate the Efficacy and Tolerability of Hydroxychloroquine (HCQ) in Adult Patients With Mild to Moderate Coronavirus Disease (COVID-19) Compared to Standard of Care Treatment
Clinical Course of COVID-19 in Patients With Rheumatoid Arthritis Treated With or Without Hydroxychloroquine: a Case-control Study
MentalPlus® for Assessment and Rehabilitation of Cognitive Functions After Remission of Symptoms of COVID-19
Who cites it
509 citing papers in PubMed, 6 syntheses or guidelines pooled it.
- Pooled it
- Nanoparticles as an effective drug delivery system in COVID-19.Biomedicine & pharmacotherapy = Biomedecine & pharmacotherapie · 2021Pooled it
- Effects of chloroquine or hydroxychloroquine treatment on non-SARS-CoV2 viral infections: A systematic review of clinical studies.Reviews in medical virology · 2021Pooled it
- Coronavirus disease (COVID-19) pandemic: an overview of systematic reviews.BMC infectious diseases · 2021Pooled it
- Chloroquine or hydroxychloroquine for prevention and treatment of COVID-19.The Cochrane database of systematic reviews · 2021Pooled it
- An umbrella review of systematic reviews with meta-analyses evaluating positive and negative outcomes of Hydroxychloroquine and chloroquine therapy.International journal of infectious diseases : IJID : official publication of the International Society for Infectious Diseases · 2021Pooled it
- The mediating and moderating role of COVID-19 coping attitudes in the relationship between coronavirus anxiety and cyberchondria.BMC psychology · 2026Article
- Old drugs, new weapons: current trends in repurposing therapies against antimicrobial resistance.Journal of pharmacy & pharmaceutical sciences : a publication of the Canadian Society for Pharmaceutical Sciences, Societe canadienne des sciences pharmaceutiques · 2026Review
- Repurposing Antimalarials for Oral Cancer: Selective Efficacy of Hydroxychloroquine on Gingival Squamous Cell Carcinoma.International journal of molecular sciences · 2025Article
- Comprehensive and translational pathobiology of COVID-19 based on cellular and molecular techniques.Practical laboratory medicine · 2025Review
- Biodegradation of Chloroquine by a Fungus from Amazonian Soil,Journal of fungi (Basel, Switzerland) · 2025Article
- Malaria: past, present, and future.Signal transduction and targeted therapy · 2025Review
- Repurposing Drugs for Infectious Diseases by Graph Convolutional Network with Sensitivity-Based Graph Reduction.Interdisciplinary sciences, computational life sciences · 2025Article
- Structure-guided design and triplicate molecular dynamics evaluation of mutant peptide inhibitors targeting SARS-CoV-2 main protease (Mpro).In silico pharmacology · 2025Article
- Blood matters: the hematological signatures of Coronavirus infection.Cell death & disease · 2024Article
- Repurposed Drugs during the Outbreak of Pandemic COVID-19: A Mini-Review on Their Molecular Structures and Hit-and-Trial Results.ACS omega · 2024Review
- Harnessing immunity: Immunomodulatory therapies in COVID-19.World journal of virology · 2024Review
- The efficacy and safety of hydroxychloroquine for COVID-19 prophylaxis and clinical assessment: an updated meta-analysis of randomized trials.Journal of thoracic disease · 2024Article
- Elucidating Gender-Specific Distribution of Imipramine, Chloroquine, and Their Metabolites in Mice Kidney Tissues through AP-MALDI-MSI.International journal of molecular sciences · 2024Article
- Quality-by-design ecofriendly potentiometric sensor for rapid monitoring of hydroxychloroquine purity in the presence of toxic impurities.Scientific reports · 2024Article
449 more citing papers are in PubMed but not listed here.
Corrections and comments
PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.
Authors and funding
5 authors.
Funding
No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
purposeCOVID-19 (coronavirus disease 2019) is a public health emergency of international concern. As of this time, there is no known effective pharmaceutical treatment, although it is much needed for patient contracting the severe form of the disease. The aim of this systematic review was to summarize the evidence regarding chloroquine for the treatment of COVID-19.
methodsPubMed, EMBASE, and three trial Registries were searched for studies on the use of chloroquine in patients with COVID-19.
resultsWe included six articles (one narrative letter, one in-vitro study, one editorial, expert consensus paper, two national guideline documents) and 23 ongoing clinical trials in China. Chloroquine seems to be effective in limiting the replication of SARS-CoV-2 (virus causing COVID-19) in vitro.
conclusionsThere is rationale, pre-clinical evidence of effectiveness and evidence of safety from long-time clinical use for other indications to justify clinical research on chloroquine in patients with COVID-19. However, clinical use should either adhere to the Monitored Emergency Use of Unregistered Interventions (MEURI) framework or be ethically approved as a trial as stated by the World Health Organization. Safety data and data from high-quality clinical trials are urgently needed.
Indexed as
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What OpenQuestion holds
Registered trials
Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the OpenQuestion graph.